The Avett Brothers: Hot Tea And Honey

Seth and Scott Avett spend a good chunk of their lives on one tour bus or another, so asking them to perform in one isn't all that different from asking them to perform in one of their own living rooms. They may be far away from their native North Carolina — to be exact, they're captured here in a Camden, N.J., parking lot in conjunction with the XPoNential Music Festival — but the setting is cozy enough for Seth Avett to brew tea before performing.

The Avett Brothers will soon spend a lot more time on that bus: The band's new album, The Carpenter, comes out Sept. 11. Naturally, when asked to play a song from the record, the Avetts picked its first single, "Live and Die" — a sweetly hooky jam which lends itself perfectly to the pair's acoustic-guitar-and-banjo interplay. The resulting performance is five minutes of hot tea and honey, perfect for New Jersey parking lots and all points west.